Dark One: Bio Elaine Pain

Elaine Pain's Statement

When this film began 9 years ago I didn’t have grey hair and I had my own teeth.Life has not been normal since. Darryl walks the dog and comes rushing back to get the camera because he saw maggots popping out of a dead gopher.Darryl films a dead crow because the light is just perfect.There are slugs on the bottom of the dog dish and I have to salt them while Darryl films them turning to white slim.Darryl films wasp and ant wars in our garden for hours, he pleads with me to make him stop.We both regret not getting the shot of the skunk with no head.Vacations are no better.Darryl films tent caterpillars and their webs for hours and I wander off in search of other exotic insects to film.We visit the hoodoos in Alberta and we each wander about filming. I leave before sunstroke gets me, Darryl does not. Darryl lies on a stony beach in B.C. happily filming creatures in a tidal pool. Whenever I travel I carry a camera to take pick up shots Darryl might like: graves, churches, nature, water etc. I have a shopping list in my head. We even make use of slides I shot 20 years ago in China and Japan. The need for images is overwhelming.I worry about Darryl’s health, he is a man driven.I do what I can. This project is critical for him to make and to his satisfaction as he purges his own demons.I visit family members 20km away, I think they might die of old age before the film is done.Darryl counts it as one of my many vacations.I realize Darryl is at the breaking point, I need to get him away from his edit suite, even if he believes he has no time.I make a picnic lunch for a day trip. We take the cameras.He happily climbs and films the stations of the cross at LeBret and religious imagery at the museum.He sleeps the deep sleep of exhaustion as I drive us home.I am happy I got him away from his film, well at least out of town.-Elaine Pain